A grim reaping
by thisbitch-isback
Summary: The Doctor and Matha take a trip to the old west and find something that shouldn't be there.
1. Chapter 1

Mr Travers stood back to admire his handiwork he had just finished patching a section of wall where Arthur the horse had made a hole the night before during the storm.

He didn't usually get so frightened during storms but something about this one had made even Mr Travers feel a little unnerved. One of the barn's floor boards creaked.

Travers spun around. He had been on edge since the deputy had vanished; he didn't really fancy being the next victim of who or whatever was taking the town's folk.

When Travers saw that it was just his stable hand he lowered his defences. He noticed the boy looked odd but he couldn't work out what was different about him.

As Jack, Doctor Jameson's son, approached him, he saw that his eyes were no longer the dazzling blue he had inherited from his mother but a dark scarlet, that if you quickly glanced looked almost like flames.

Jack spoke to Travers but not in the innocent adolescent voice he always spoke to him with, but a sinister stage whisper "You are Mr Robert Travers are you not?" he asked.

Robert took his time to answer. He didn't know if this was some kind of trick the other farmers in the area were playing so he answered.

"Who wants to know?" He was hoping that the boy wouldn't say anything but he said in his sinister voice three words, just three. He said "Your worst nightmare." and with that the boy was engulfed in smoke and when Travers saw what stepped out of it he froze to the spot, too scared to pick up the hammer next to him.

Suddenly he saw the glint of metal and felt a slash on his neck. He then heard a grinding sound which he thought was the bones in his neck. This was the last thing he would hear.

The TARDIS materialized outside an old fashioned looking saloon. "Where are we?" Martha asked.

The Doctor looked around and replied, "From where I'm standing it looks to me like we're in the old west!"

Martha looked disbelievingly at him -this was why she loved him, he was always astounded at the new places they landed.

"Wait a minute don't I stick out a bit?"

"What do you mean?"The Doctor asked unhelpfully

"There aren't exactly any other people that have the same skin colour as me!"

"Martha, Martha,Martha, what did I tell you when we met Shakespeare?"

"Walk around like you own the place, but if that doesn't work then what?"

But The Doctor had already walked to the nearest dress makers and was holding what was to be his wild west outfit and was now browsing for Martha.

As Martha walked in to the shop the assistant immediately came to ask if she needed help choosing a colour that went with her skin tone, which was when the doctor called her over, he had apparently found her a dress which she would love.

"Oh my god, that is so beautiful, but... you don't have any money!"she remembered.

"Oh I do, _I_ went to the bank."said The Doctor.

"Psychic paper?"asked Martha.

"Psychic paper!" Replied The Doctor. "Don't you like the dress?" He asked when he saw she hadn't changed yet,

"No, no it is absolutely gorgeous!"she said awestruck. With that she turned and strutted to the changing rooms-well I say changing room but it was more a curtain in a corner.

When Martha came out of the dressing room she found that The Doctor had already left and paid for the dress, his outfit, had changed and was now talking to the towns harassed looking sheriff.

Martha came out of the dress makers The Doctor was saying bye to the sheriff and turned to see Martha in her new dark blue dress,he smiled and Martha felt butterflies in her stomach, but she knew he didn't feel the same way about her.

The Doctor turned and looked at Martha. He felt butterflies in his stomach and he grinned his biggest grin for her,but could he really fall in love with a human? But she was no ordinary human she was_ Martha, _she was the one person that at times could be smarter than him.

It was her who worked out that 'Professor Yana' was actually the master after using a chameleon arch to re-write his time lord biology.

She was the one who saved the world after traveling the earth for a year, only to find that the year was never to be remembered by anyone other than her, The Doctor, her mum, dad, sister, and of course the fabulous Captain Jack.

The Doctor was brought back from his thoughts when Martha asked him what the matter was with the sheriff.

The Doctor was so astounded by the way she looked in the dress he chose for her that he didn't answer.

"

Doctor, hello?"

"Oh the sheriff, he has been having some disappearances over the last two weeks."

"Are we going to investigate it?"asked Martha excitedly.

"Oh yes!" replied The Doctor."But first I think we should visit the saloon."

"Why? Is that where the first disappearance took place?"

"No, I just thought you might be hungry that's all."he replied,"But if you want to investigate now we can always eat later!"

"I like the sound of that."said Martha.

Half an hour later they were pulling up outside a run down barn. The Doctor paid the horseman, and they set off towards the barn.

Suddenly Martha said "Whats that smell?"

"It smells like burning, oh Martha, I think you just found our first clue. God that really smells."

As they entered the barn the smell of burning steadily grew stronger.

"Doctor look there's a scorch mark on the floor."exclaimed Martha.

"Right you are Martha, something happened on this spot,lets see if there is any more clues to show where the owner of this barn went." So they began searching.

An hour later Martha said "Doctor there's nothing else here. Doctor?" But he had fallen asleep in the corner where he was searching. Martha walked over to him and gently shook him

"Wakey, wakey, Doctor."

"What happened?" replied The Doctor.

"You fell asleep!"

"Oh, sorry its just we're not gonna find anything else are we?"he said. Martha thought about this, he was right.

"How many others have disappeared?"asked Martha

"About three more." the Doctor replied with a yawn. "If we're going to look there too we need food!"

"Now you mention it, I do feel a little hungry."


	2. Chapter 2

Martha was beginning to get annoyed. They were at the place where the fourth person had disappeared and she was sure that like the scenes of the other disappearances all there would be was a large scorch mark.

"Martha look!" The Doctor shouted making Martha jump, "There are shards of metal on the floor next to the scorch mark on the floor."

Sure enough there was at least ten pieces of metal on the floor."Do you want me to get them for you?"Martha asked,anything was better than nothing.

"No! that is an extremely sharp metal, I don't think you would like to lose your fingers just yet!"

"So how are we going to keep them contained once we pick them up?"She was curious as to why there were pieces of an extremely sharp metal in a disused old warehouse.

"I need a metal container and tweezers."the Doctor replied.

"Where am I supposed to get them there are no houses around here!"she explained.

"Erm...well if you go into the TARDIS take the third right then the second left carry on down the corridor, there is a first aid room right in front of you!"

"Third right, second left" she repeated so he knew she understood. When Martha had walked out of the warehouse he looked at the shards of metal and said to him self, "The only place you see this kind of metal is in the underworld." but if that was the case why had a creature from the underworld come to the surface just to kidnap people?

He was thinking of reasons when Martha returned with the metal container and tweezers.

After twenty minutes of struggling to get the shards into the container, the Doctor straightened up and looked at Martha, He could feel the butterflies in his stomach again, but he had to tell her.

"Martha...I think we're in grave danger. When you went to get me these," he held up the container and tweezers "I was thinking, from the way this metal looks it could well be from the underworld." 

"What do you mean by 'underworld'?"she asked

"Where supernatural beings live."he replied. He couldn't help but stare into her dark brown eyes.

Martha looked at him shocked. It took her three attempts for her to regain her voice, "So what could this creature be? and why is it taking innocent men and women?"she demanded. T

he Doctor was hoping she might have known what it was so it was a shock to Martha when he asked her "Have you ever heard of a creature that hunts on humans?"

Martha looked puzzled and when The Doctor saw this he added "Anything even fairy tales" when he saw she was scared he walked over to her and put an arm around her.

They could both feel butterflies in their stomachs.

Martha couldn't help but smile at the Doctor. He thought she was just glad that he was there to comfort her,so he grinned back at how brilliant it was to have her there.

At nightfall Martha pointed out to the Doctor that they had no-where to stay

"Oh I forgot to ask the sheriff if there were anymore rooms in the inn!"he said, Martha saw that he was disappointed with himself for not thinking about that.

So she said as reassuringly as possible "Its OK we've been busy today... but if you think about it, all of the victims had rooms at the inn and the owner would have been asked to clear the rooms out by the sheriff so that he could see all their belongings." the Doctor just stared at her " That means there are spare rooms as of this afternoon!"

A grin spread across the Doctor's face" Martha you're brilliant!" but suddenly the grin vanished "But we have no way to get back into town; the horse and cart left as soon as I paid." He glanced at Martha; she was still smiling.

She looked at him and said "Oh I think we do have a way of getting into town." with that she turned and walked back towards the old warehouse.

Ten minutes later Martha came back and took the Doctor's hand. He allowed himself to be lead around the back of the warehouse where he saw an almost new quad bike.

The Doctor looked at Martha and the grin reappeared on his face. "Thanks to you we have a way to town." Martha was about to tell the Doctor that it was a valuable clue that she had missed, but he had already jumped on the quad bike and was revving the engine.

Martha decided to wait until he remembered that she had missed a valuable clue, so she got on the quad bike. "Hold on!"The Doctor shouted back to her.

Martha reached back to grab the strap on the seat but it wasn't there "Doctor there's no strap!"

"This isn't a motor bike!" he replied "You have to hold on to me!"

He had hoped that the quad was not the most modern one with a strap on the back seat; he silently grinned to him self as Martha reached around his waist and held on. T

he doctor pulled out of the farm and on to the road.

It took them half an hour to get back to town and a further ten explaining why they needed the room.

After Martha had almost dropped to her knees begging, the landlord said, "Oh alright but I don't want my cleaners going in there and finding the room a tip!"

They had reached the room and the landlord bade them good night. As soon as he was out of earshot the doctor turned to Martha and said "We don't make mess." Martha raised her eyebrow

"Well not much."

Martha laughed as the Doctor turned the key in the lock; as she walked in her heart skipped a beat.

The inn owner had thought they were an item and given them a room with a double bed. "Not again!" she heard the Doctor groan "Why do we always get a double room?" Martha felt disappointed that the doctor hadn't been more subtle with this remark.

She gave him a sympathetic smile and set off in to the bathroom. She loved sharing rooms with the Doctor but couldn't help thinking that he had said that he hated that they were sharing the room with the same false voice he used when trying to reassure people that everything was OK when he knew it wasn't.

Martha thought she might have imagined it, so she tossed the thought aside. But what she did love to do when he did finally get to sleep was to watch him and often wondered whether he was dreaming about her.

Martha had walked into the bathroom and the Doctor began to silently celebrate that the inn keeper had given them a double room.

He loved watching her sleeping and he always wondered if it was him she was dreaming of because he always dreamt of them being a happy couple travelling the universe. Martha returned from the bathroom in her new Barcelonian silk nightie (that's the planet Barcelona not the country, they have dogs with no noses according to the Doctor!)

"you look stunning" he exclaimed. Martha smiled and climbed into bed with the Doctor who had already changed into the same pajamas she had met him in and he had set out his blue suit along with his burgundy converses.

She kissed him on the cheek, said goodnight; turned down the gas burners so that it was dark enough for her to get to sleep, but there was enough light for the doctor to be able to read his book.


	3. Chapter 3

When Martha woke the next morning she found the Doctor sitting in a chair facing her which she was sure had not been there the night before.

When the Doctor saw that she was up, he brought over a tray full of the most gorgeous smelling breakfast she had ever had in her life.

"You didn't have to do this!" she began to say, but the Doctor gave her one of his heart melting grins and she fell silent.

She hoped he couldn't hear her heart racing at what she thought was one of the biggest clues as to what he really thought about her.

But instead of making conversation he sat down in his chair and began reading again so Martha thought it was best to start eating so he didn't see that she was upset.

The Doctor felt out of order to Martha because he didn't say a word to her while she was eating or the hour following. He didn't want to make her too aware that he was falling for her.

She was the first human he had loved since Rose had travelled with him and that had ended badly,her stuck on a parallel world and him free to travel the universe, but that was then and this was now. He was hoping that Martha would sleep longer as he had moved the chair he had found in the bathroom to the end of the bed he had so willingly shared with Martha to watch her sleep.

He had even risked facing the chair towards her so he could watch her dream and he waited in anticipation for the times when she wrinkled her nose at something she evidently didn't like in her dream. But Martha had woke earlier then he expected given their late night looking for clues.

She had instantly spotted the chair facing her and he knew she loved him. She had told him months ago when he was, lets say under the influence of the chameleon arch and convinced his name was not the Doctor but John Smith.

She had stuck by him and told him that the Doctor was not a bad person but the greatest man alive. When the Doctor was back to his normal self she told him that she would have said anything to get him back but the Doctor knew that meant anything but lie!

Martha was now complaining that the doctor had not even noticed that the quad bike was from around about the 21st century and he had just left it out in the open.

Luckily it was a Sunday and the town wasn't yet set up for business.

"Doctor we need to move the bike out of site." Martha was saying .

"But where? There isn't any sheds or garages to put a bicycle, let alone a quad bike that shouldn't be here till the 21st century!" he replied.

"Can't we take it back to the old warehouse and tell the horseman to come get us at noon?" asked Martha hopefully.

She was desperate for a place that had already been searched so they could sit in the sun and talk about anything including why the chair from the bathroom had been moved to the bedroom and turned to face her.

Martha was just thinking about asking when the Doctor said " Sheriff! What seems to be the matter?" Martha spun around on the spot to see the sheriff being stopped in his tracks by the Doctor.

He seemed more absorbed in his own thoughts than to listen to what the Doctor was saying, but he did manage to mumble something about not another disappearance but a death!

Martha was struggling to keep up with the Doctor but was determined to catch up with him. He had been talking to the sheriff and suddenly he was off at an Olympic sprint; she wasn't far behind.

Since the day she met the Doctor she had learned to be ready to sprint or duck or just apprehend a suspect at the slightest signal, and this time was no different.

She had been looking in the nearest shop window and making a mental note to ask the Doctor if they could go to the Champs-Elysee's in the present day, when she saw him turn and sprint in the direction the sheriff was pointing.

And now, here she was still struggling to keep up with the Doctor. Martha glanced behind her to see how far they had, ran only to run straight into the Doctor. They had reached where the sheriff had pointed to.

The Doctor walked into the barn where the sheriff had told him that the latest disappearance was, only this wasn't the scene of a disappearance it was the scene of a murder!

The Doctor turned suddenly when he heard panting, only to find Martha red faced still running after him. "What's the problem?" she gasped, "Why did you sprint off like that?"

"There's been a death and from the sound of it, I think it's the man-or monster-we've been looking for!" he replied without a hint of breathlessness.

"Why...Aren't...You...Out...Of...Breath?"she quizzed him.

"I'm a doctor; I know how to pace myself!" he paused "You may want to loose some weight you know!"

The look of shock made him reword this sentence "I meant your jacket and the rucksack! I wasn't implying that you need to eat less-I mean you look gr-" he checked himself then said, "You know you look good!" Martha smiled gratefully but little did she know the Doctor's hearts were melting.

"Lets see what we came for then shall we?" The Doctor entered the old barn and instantly began poking and prodding the body of an old farmer. Martha however was less willing to enter the barn.

"Erm, Doctor, I'm gonna investigate outside." She waited for a reply which didn't come so she added, "There is such a thing as respect for the dead!"

This time the Doctor replied but it wasn't what she expected him to say. "Martha could you come here please? I would like to ask you a question."

"Now I've done it!" she said to herself, but the Doctor had called her not to shout at her but to ask her a question.

As soon as Martha was within whispering distance the Doctor told her something that made her skin crawl, "Martha I think we are in the most serious danger in the universe. This kind of thing should not be happening. As far as I remember no-one in western films were beheaded..."

Martha didn't hear the rest of this sentence because she had just noticed a hammer, planks of wood and more fragments of what she suspected was the same metal that the Doctor had found the day before.

As Martha walked towards the hammer and wood she saw that part of the wall had been replaced and there in the corner was the old farmer's head. A look of pure horror fixed on his face for the rest of time.

"Doctor I think you will be needing this!" she said pointing to the head. " Oh, so that's what's missing, I knew something was missing!"

Martha rolled her eyes to the ceiling and saw what distinctly looked like a tiny version of the time vortex "Doctor you need to see this."

The Doctor looked at her and said, "If its more of that metal I don't want to know" Martha replied to this with a very nasty look; the Doctor jumped to his feet. As the doctor approached

Martha pointed at the 'hole' and waited for the Doctor to tell her what it was. The Doctor looked taken aback and started to back away. J

ust as Martha was beginning to worry, the Doctor suddenly had a change of heart -or hearts- and grabbed the pile of crates and began dragging them towards the hole in the ceiling.

It was only now that Martha realised she was no-longer paralysed with fear and she hurried to the doctor's side.


	4. Chapter 4

Martha stood next to the TARDIS, control panel, watching anxiously as the doctor buzzed around like a lunatic.

It had been and hour since she had found the gap in the fabric of time as the Doctor had so nicely put it.

Once the Doctor had taken out his glasses Martha knew it was something serious, and thought it was best if she let the doctor fuss about and tell her how bad it was instead of her asking and getting an earful.

After half an hour of waiting for the doctor to tell her how bad it was Martha finally plucked up the courage to say, "So Doctor, how bad is it?" but from the look on the Doctor's face as he opened his mouth to answer her she knew it was worse than she thought.

"That Martha," he began pointing to the TARDIS monitor which was fixed on the gap "is very bad news because I can't close it until what came through it goes back."

The Doctor saw the horrified look that had swept over Martha's face and added, " But I have a keen idea what came through it which should be confirmed by the TARDIS when she's finished running a scan of that metal we found in the warehouse and the bits I found in the barn when you were outside.

The TARDIS gave a few bleeps and the doctor raced over to the monitor, frowned, looked at Martha and said in an unusually unenthusiastic tone, "Looks like we're taking a detour to the underworld!"

The TARDIS ground to a halt. Martha was surprisingly feeling scared of what was in the underworld.

As a child she had read stories about how monsters live there but had always known they were just stories, but that's what she had thought when she was told about aliens and time-travel but she now knew how wrong she was about that, but she knew that as long as she was with the Doctor she would be relatively safe.

There was no telling if the doctor was in an 'I'm gonna get captured to find out what's going on' kind of mood.

"We'll be fine Martha." the Doctor said as though reading her mind, "as long as we keep our heads down and not look for trouble were fine."

" But we are looking for trouble-"she paused "what are we looking for?"

" We are looking for the grim reaper." replied the Doctor with a look of pure dislike.

" You cant be serious!" Martha replied horrified.

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, followed by an anxious Martha who wasn't sure what to expect as this wasn't an alien but something that came from her world and was implanted in her life.

The Doctor shot a grin at Martha but in reality he was just as scared as she was.

Further down the underground passage, Martha heard footsteps. She froze. Her heart beating in her ears. "Doctor!" she called after the already receding silhouette.

The Doctor didn't turn. Suddenly Martha realised she was on her own. Feeling eyes on her back she tried to call the Doctor again, "Hello,Doctor!" she shouted down the passage.

She couldn't tell which way he had turned as the light on the top of the TARDIS didn't illuminate that far down the passage, and the Doctor had taken the only light.

"Great, just what I need -to be stuck some where I can't see." Martha turned on her heel and began to make her way back to the TARDIS.

"...I knew there was something familiar about that metal." the Doctor was saying, " Well here we are, I hope you don't mind the smell of damp!" The Doctor turned to face Martha only to find that she wasn't there.

"I always tell them to stay behind me!" he said to himself exasperated. "All the time! None of them ever listen!" 

Martha unlocked the door to the TARDIS and stepped into the control room. She looked around and jumped as the central column thrummed.

" I hope that doesn't mean anything bad." she thought to herself. At that moment she was plunged into darkness.

A few seconds later a red warning light came on signaling to Martha that the thrum of the column did in fact mean something.

" Wonderful, now I'm locked in the TARDIS and I have to wait for the Doctor to work out that I'm here."

From deep inside the TARDIS, Martha heard a bang. She span around. Grabbing the mallet that the Doctor often used to fly the TARDIS during turbulence.

Martha eased her way towards the inner door of the TARDIS which was now a sinister shade of red. She inched the door open and everything when black.

Retracing his steps the Doctor set out to find where Martha had got to. Approaching the tunnel that lead to the TARDIS, when he spotted that the quaint little 1950's police box was no longer illuminated by the turquoise light that the central column of the control room usually emanated, but a violent crimson which signalled an intruder.

Fumbling in his jacket, the Doctor wrenched his TARDIS key from his pocket and launched it in to the lock. Before the Doctor had the chance to turn the key the door gave way and revealed the one person that he didn't want to see.

The grim reaper stood in the door of the TARDIS and leered at the now helpless Doctor as he stumbled to his feet.

"Ah, Doctor, I have been waiting for you!" the reaper whispered. "I have a little preposition for you."

"I know what it is that you want, and I will not set you free from the underworld to wreck havoc on the surface." The Doctor spat with distaste.

"You will set me free as I will make it so that you have no choice!" came a reply from behind the Doctor .

The reaper raised the very same mallet that Martha had thought would protect her, and brought it down on the back of the Doctor's head.

Martha regained consciousness slowly. First was sound, the low rhythmic thrumming of the TARDIS. The next sense she regained was smell, not the familiar smell of what she had called home for the past six months, but a damp musty smell like rotting wood.

Opening her eyes Martha saw that the lights were back on and saw the doctor slumped against the central column.

" Nice of you to finally join us, Miss Jones." came the same sinister whisper that Martha could have sworn she had heard earlier.

" So you're the grim reaper!" Martha said with a grimace. Her head hurt a lot from where the reaper had knocked her out.

" Yes, and you are going to help him." He pointed to the Doctor who was struggling to his feet, " To set me free." he continued.

"I don't think that will be happening anytime soon." replied Martha weakly, " Because if I know the Doctor he will find a way to keep you down here."

" She's right you know," the doctor piped up " I will not under any circumstances set you free on the human race!"

"Well in that case," the reaper began "Maybe this will change your mind." with that the reaper disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared behind Martha.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and conjured his scythe, held it to Martha's throat then said. "So now what is your answer? Either you say yes and set me free, or Miss Jones looses her head."


End file.
